"]
The sword-edge and snake-bite, though hidden in blossoms, are
hatred's old arms.
And what is your May Queen at heart, oh, true hearts, that succumb
to her charms?
Dropped and deep in the blossoms, with eyes that flicker like fir
The asp of Murder lies hid, which with poison shall feed your
desire.
More than these things will she give, who looks fairer than all
these things?
Not while her sceptre's a snake, and her orb the red horror that
rings
Devilish, foul, round the world; while the hiss and the roar are
the voice
Of this monstrous new Queen of the May, in whose rule you would
bid us rejoice.
* * * * *
MR. PUNCH'S UP-TO-DATE POETRY FOR CHILDREN.
NO. II.--"LITTLE JACK HORNER."
[Illustration]
LITTLE JACK HORNER,
He sat in the corner,
And cried for his "Mummy!" and "Nuss!"
For, while eating his cake,
He had got by mistake
In a horrid piratical 'bus.
Now, some ten minutes back,
You'd have seen little JACK
From an Aerated Bread Shop emerge,
And proceed down the Strand--
Slice of cake in his hand--
In a crumb-covered suit of blue serge.
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